WISEMAN
672
WISEMAN
leaders of the Oxford Movement. The sincerity of
their Catholic leanings had been doubted when they
were Protestants; and the sincerity of their conversion
was equally suspected now that they were Catholics.
Wiseman, on the other hand, saw in every fresh acces-
sion new ground for serious hope for the return of
England to Catholic unity. He enUsted the prayers
of many Continental bishops for this intention, and
worked unceasingly to promote a cordial understand-
ing between new converts and old Catholics, and to
make the Oxford neophytes at home in their new
surroundings. Many of them found shelter and occu-
pation at Oscott, and the "Dublin Review" was
strengthened by an infusion of new writers from their
ranks. Deeply interested, as was natural, in the
future of Newman and his immediate followers, Wise-
man concerned himself closely with the project,
ultimately realized in Birmingham, of founding an
Oratory in England.
Meanwhile he had himself been appointed pro- vicar ApostoHc of the London District, and had (in July, 1847) visited Rome on business of the utmost importance in relation to Enghsh Catholicism. He was deputed by his brother bishops to submit to the Holy See the question of revising the constitution of the Church in England, and of substituting for the vicars Apostolic a regular hierarchy, such as had existed in Ireland throughout the darkest days of the penal laws, and had recently been established in Australia. In the changed circumstances of English Catholicism some new code of laws was imperatively called for to supplement the obsolete constitution of 17.53; but the project of creating a hierarchy, which Wiseman fa- voured as the true solution of the question, was strongly opposed by many English Catholics, headed by Car- dinal Acton, the only English member of the Sacred College. The negotiations on the matter with the Holy See were interrupted by the exciting and impor- tant political events which followed the accession of Pius IX and the national Italian rising against Aus- tria. Wiseman returned to England charged with the duty of appealing to the British Government for support of the Papacy in carrying out its policy of Liberalism. Bishop Ullathorne was sent out to Rome early in 1848 to continue in Wiseman's place the nego- tiations on the question of the hierarchy for England; and he left on record his admiration of the calm and detailed consideration given to the subject by the authorities, at a time when revolution and disorder were almost at their height. All the evidence forth- coming seemed to show that the British Government could find no reasonable cause of ofTence in the pro- posed measure; and it was on the point of being car- ried out when the Revolution burst in Rome, and the pope's flight to Gaeta delayed the actual execution of the project for nearly two years.
Soon after Wiseman's return to England he suc- ceeded Dr. Walsh as vicar Apostolic of the London District, and threw himself into his episcopal work with characteristic activity and zeal. The means he relied on for quickening the spiritual life of the dis- trict were, first, the frequent giving of retreats and missions both for clergy and laity, and secondly the revival of religious orders, which had of course become entirely extinct in England under the penal laws. Within two years he founded no less than ten religious communities in London, and had the satis- faction of seeing many of the converts either joining one or the other of these communities, or working harmoniously as .secular priests with the other clergy of the district. A notable event in the annals of the London Catholics was the opening, at which Wise- man assisted, of the great Gothic Church of St. George's, Southwark, designed by Pugin, in July, 1848. Fourteen bishops, 240 priests, and represent- atives of many religious orders took part in the open- ing ceremonies, which were described in no unfriendly
spirit by the metropolitan Press. A function on this
scale in the capital of England indicated, as was said
at the time, that the English Catholic Church had
indeed "come out of the catacombs"; but Wiseman
had still much to contend with in the shape of strong
opposition, on the part of both clergy and laity of
the old school, to what was called the "Romanizing"
and "innovating" spirit of the new bishop. In mat-
ters of devotion as well as of Church disciphne every
development was regarded by this party vvith sus-
picion and distrust; and no greater proof could be
adduced of the tact, prudence, and firmness of Wise-
man in his difficult office, than the fact that in less
than three years he had practically disarmed his
opponents, and had won over to his own views, not
only the rank and file, but the leaders of the party
which had at first most strenuously resisted him.
In the spring of 1850, just after the Gorham de- cision of the Privy Council, declaring the doctrine of baptismal regeneration to be an open question in the Church of England, had resulted in a new influx of distinguished converts to Cathohcism, Wiseman received the news of his impending elevation to the cardinalate, carrying with it, as he supposed, the obli- gation of permanent residence in Rome. Deeply as he regretted the prospect of a lifelong severance from his work in England, he loyally submitted to the pope's behest, and left England, as he thought for ever, on 16 Aug. Meanwhile strong representations were being made at Rome with the view of retaining his services at home; and he was able to write, imme- diately after his first audience of Pius IX, that it was decided that the Enghsh hierarchy was to be pro- claimed without delay, and that he was to return to England as its chief. At a consistory held on 30 Sept. Nicholas Wiseman was named a cardinal priest, with the title of St. Pudentiana. The papal Brief re-establishing the hierarchy had been issued on the previous day; and on 7 Oct. the newly-created car- dinal Archbishop of Westminster announced the event to EngUsh Catholics in his famous pastoral "from outside the Flaminian Gate".
He left Rome a few days later, travelling by Flor- ence, Venice, and Vienna, where he was the emperor's guest ; and it was here that he first learned from a leading article in the "Times", worded in the most hostile terms, .something of the sudden storm of bitter feeling aroused in England, not by his own elevation of the Sacred College, but by the creation of an English Catholic hierarchy with territorial titles. Wiseman instantly wrote to the Premier, Lord John Russell, to deprecate the misconception in thepubhc mind of the papal act; but by the time he reached England, in Nov., 1850, the fanatical fury of the agi- tation caused by the so-called "Papal aggression" was at its height. Every article printed by the "Times" on the subject was more bitter than ita predecessor: the premier's famous letter to the Bishop of Durham, inveighing against the pope's action as "insolent and insidious", fanned the flame: Queen Victoria showed her sympathy with the agitation in her reply to an address from the Anglican bishops; riotous public meetings, and the burning in effigy of pope, cardinals, and prelates, kept the whole coun- try in a state of ferment for several weeks; and Wise- man in his progress through London was frequently hooted, and stones were thrown at the windows of his carriage. Nothing daunted, he instantly set about the composition of his masterly " Ajipcal to the Reason and Good Feeling of the English ii('oi>le on the subject of the Catholic Hierarchy", a jiamphlet of some thirty pages, addressed to the peoiile them- selves rather than to the educated minority who in the writer's view had so grossly and inexcusably mis- led them. The cogency and ability of the apjieal was frankly recognized by the English Press, and the political enemies of the government were not slow to
